HMS News – 11 November 2013

On November 13, 2013, in News, by ArthurGoodwin

Total War should now begin shipping December 6th, 2013. After getting approval for the last of our electronic files from the printer, we uncovered an error. This was a error on our part, here at HMS. Due in part to the long development time for the rules and OBs, we had not coordinated our software conversions as well as we should have.

While the bulk of the booklets are in a standard format, the OBs and part of the rules use a number of special symbols and graphics. Transfer from Mac to PC files and then to the format needed by the printers, slightly altered some of the text. Our scans of the initial print proof copies focused on the page length and margins since we had already edited the text of the files. The printers have generously minimized the cost to reprint and we will move ahead with the new print schedule.

 

HMS News – September 24, 2013

On September 25, 2013, in News, by ArthurGoodwin

We can now state when Total War will ship – 18 Nov 2013, and this means that all copies should go out before Thanksgiving (28Nov13). We have completed arrangements for funding that will be available on that date that will cover the shipping costs for the game. There is a possibility of earlier shipping if another source of funds we have been exploring pans out, but the 18 Nov funding is now definite.

Completing the arrangements to ship the game has been complicated. We had borrowed money to complete the game just prior to the fire. The cleanup/recovery of material from the fire-damaged building then used up that funding. Most of the investors who put up that earlier money have been patient and allowed us time to work things out, but there have been things we have had to work around. One loan has a repayment clause that requires its repayment in full within 30 days after the first complete copy of Total War ships. Another investor sits on the HMS board until he is repaid and his worries that the discussion on the EuropaAssociation list about the Total War rules would negatively affect store sales (from which he will be repaid) has meant that further releases of rules examples or posting of electronic copies of the rules/charts has had to be ruled out until after the game ships. But we can now state that a definite funding process/shipping date is in place that accommodates all of these concerns.

We want to stress that reaching this point would not have been possible without the help of the Europa community. Your support, patience, and good will have made our recovery possible.

Looking to the future, we will have a new price list, information on laminated maps, and a discussion of a limited-edition reprint of Second Front & War in the Desert on the website over the next couple of weeks.

 

HMS News – August 9, 2013

On August 9, 2013, in News, by ArthurGoodwin

It has taken a bit longer than I had expected to go over all the options here regarding shipping of Total War and new price list. Howevere, we will have this resolved and a definitive update posted sometime this weekend.

Two pieces of good news:
1. We’ve mangaged to get costs confirmed that will allow for a limited edition reprint of Second Front in near future (this is original printed counters, not laser-cut ones we talked about before). There will be more about this in near future.
2. Gordon Johansen kindly provided a pdf of ETO #58 so it is now available for download. Just click on the link below.

ETO #58

 

HMS News – August 7, 2013 – The Fire Sale has Ended

On August 4, 2013, in News, by ArthurGoodwin

The HMS Fire Sale is now closed. We thank everyone who participated and thus helped us recover from the fire. We had a flurry of last minute orders and were accordingly up all night 5/6Aug13 and spent almost all day 6Aug13 sending out orders and then I collapsed into bed until just a bit ago. Once Gar and I have had time to tally the overall fire sale results and look at options we will post a more definitive update either later today or early tomorrow morning (Thur, 8Aug13). The new HMS product/price list will also be posted then; we are still looking at a couple of options to make the new list more attractive to members of The Europa Association and don’t want to post new list until that is decided later today. Thanks again.

One last bargain from Fire Sale: I slightly misjudged final demand for Europa Magazine Bundle (one each of issues #1-87) and thus we still have one bundle left that was made at the very low photocopy price (which went away yesterday). So first person who asks for a Europa Magazine Bundle (1-87) can still have this one at the $160 + shipping price. After that bundle goes up to $250 + shipping.

 

HMS News – July 18, 2013

On July 18, 2013, in News, by ArthurGoodwin

We have now raised about 65% of the money needed to ship Total War. The final days of the fire sale (it will end 5Aug13) and a couple of other projects we are working on (more on these later) should get us to 100%. To see the final, updated version of the Fire Sale Flyer click on the HMSFireSaleFinal link directly beneath this update.

The Fire Sale will end on 5Aug13. Phone and email orders for fire sale items will be accepted until Midnight on 5Aug13.. Regular mail orders for fire sale items will be accepted after that time so long as they are postmarked by 5Aug13. Once the sale ends, the Total War pre-publication offers end and Total War is then only available at the post-publication price. Once the sale ends, our prices for almost all other sale items will increase about 50% (this will still leave prices about 25% below what they were prior to the beginning of the sale).

Changed and added items in the sale are highlighted in green in the flyer shown below. In particular photocopy prices have decreased again; for example, photocopies of Europa Magazine are now $3 (+ shipping) an issue and the Europa Magazine Bundle Pack has decreased from $200 to $160 (+ shipping). The local copy center rewarded us with a couple of coupons for 35% off and we are passing the savings on to you. However, the copy center will also be increasing prices again on 5Aug13 so this opportunity will not come around again. We have also reduced prices on the ETO and Nuts&Bolts Bundles, and added a combined TEM/ETO/N&B Bundle for additional savings. Shipping costs to locations outside of the US have gone down for many items as the US Post Office now allows First Class Package Service to be processed electronically and this lowers shipping cost by $2-$5 on many items. We have also found some ways to substantially lower shipping costs for some of the bundles to the UK, China, and Japan  (check out the TEMBundle and TEM/ETO/N&B Bundle for examples of this). Because people have asked we now list tweezers and The Urals (complete boxed module) for sale on the parts page.

If you have a need for copies of any of the rules, OBs, and/or charts to Europa games not listed on the parts page just ask for a quote as we can probably add them to one of the photocopy runs before 5Aug13.

Because of a trade, we have a single original printed copy of each of the following Europa Magazines (otherwise only available in photocopy): #9, 31, 37, 61, and 63.  First order for a TEM Bundle or TEM/ETO/N&B Bundle gets them.

The Fire Sale is now closed.